Rootedness and Acculturation

German-Americans represent the largest self-declared ancestry group in the United States of America. The period from the 200th anniversary celebration of Germantown's founding in 1883 to the end of the First World War was an age of intense turmoil within the ranks of German-American communities. These decades were marked by a massive political and cultural realignment as well as major contributions to the (self-)definition of German-Americanness. Historians and sociolinguists with backgrounds in German or American studies offer a fresh look at a critical period in the history of German-American communities.

Tristan Coignard, born in 1977, works as a professor for German studies and history of ideas at Université Bordeaux Montaigne (France). He is a former Junior Fellow at Institut Universitaire de France (2018-2023) and received a fellowship of the German Historical Institute for a research stay at the Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library in Philadelphia (2015). His current research focuses on debates about cosmopolitanism and education and on German immigrants in the USA.

Pierre-Yves Modicom, born in 1988, is a professor for Germanic linguistics at the Linguistic Research Center - Corpus, Discourse and Societies (CEL) at Université Jean Moulin - Lyon 3 (France), where he is chair of the Institute for German Studies. His recent work focuses on contrasts and transfers between Germanic languages.